Well it was only a matter of time… Animal Nation are finally getting famous. Thank goodness, cause if they can’t do it with their looks and charm, there is no hope for anyone else.
So in last week’s episode of Peak Season not only did we get to see Mike and Garnet in a much bigger part on the show but we get to see their performance at the Telus Ski & Snowboard Festival from earlier this year! And yes, just like they say in the episode, they are the only band to perform three years in a row at Telus… ever. Check out Peak Season full episodes here: http://www.mtv.ca/tvshows/peak-season/video.jhtml
I was wondering what all the hooplah was about when Animal Nation started getting crazy web traffic from girls all over Canada begging them to come to their town and hang out as well as comments about how they are funny / awesome / cool / dead sexy etc. Pretty soon the guys are going to have band shirts made up that say “Animal Nation will steal your girlfriend”
Also… in one of the greatest stories ever… the Party Animals vid is now on MTV Canada. Director, Blair Richmond, spent a couple of days filming Animal Nation in their natural environment (the zoo) and produced a great video on probably the world’s smallest budget (what Mike scraped together from his tip jar). Now this video is up on MTV getting the odd spin and definitely on the site… which you can check here… http://www.mtv.ca/music/video_browse_play.jhtml?vid=465065&aid=1198979
At any rate - this is just my way of relaying such awesome news for a truly deserving band. If you want to congratulate the guys directly (or just check them out) send them a message via myspace or facebook… links below:
When I first got into the music business I had this vision that someday in the future I would pop some champagne and toast an artist I work with. Well this is one of those times. So, (get ready for it - this is going to be totally nerdy) here is a virtual toast to Carmen and Camille and producer Ryan Stewart for winning the Chum Emerging Artist Initiative with the fat prize of getting Shine 4U added to rotation on Chum radio stations across the country including Canada’s biggest station Chum FM in Toronto. As of 4:30pm today the girls are standing at #6 most added song for hot AC this week… and I am hoping for another point or two by tomorrow. This is huge for an indie in one of the most coveted radio months of the year.
We have had a lot of people working on this song, Bill, John and the gang at Pitbull Promotions, myself, John at TwinSpin, our team at Lander PR in London, Shelly Mantei at Mediatonic PR and many others who have interviewed the girls, reviewed the song, forwarded links, generally rooted for C&C etc. We have also had some huge support from our local radio stations including Virgin 95.3 and the Beat 94.5 specifically Jaxon Hawks, who has been hugely supportive of the girls.
I went on tour to the UK with Carmen and Camille in October where we are also pushing Shine 4U, and I didn’t forsee a break like this coming our way. This is totally awesome. In the indie world it is tough enough to get recognized so it’s nice to win sometimes. I mentioned the UK cause I will soon have some photos to share… but not yet so in the interim check out Carmen and Camille’s myspace where I have started uploading some of the shots. As I have probably repeated about 100 times a week since getting back, the UK is awesome, the music was awesome, the bands were awesome and the food was not always so awesome but I am dying to go back (even though the Brits find this desire slightly disturbing). OK… I’ve used up my “awesome” quota for 2009…
Looking ahead we are working on getting a music video done for Shine 4U and planning for a killer 2010. UK photos and vids and site update coming soon… no rest for the wicked.
“How many special people change?
How many lives are living strange?”
…
nova
PS… addendum to this…Last week Shine 4U was the #1 added song in Hot AC in Canada and #2 for Top 40!
When I left Canada a couple of months back, Animal Nation (Garnet Clare and Mike Armitage) was known to some, but not quite as many as we would like.
But then upon landing back in Canada it was all like flashbulbs and paparazi and all-star parties for my good friends in the quirky hip-hop duo Animal Nation. Well maybe not the paps just yet, and maybe their all-star parties happened in their friend’s basement, but they are like, soooo flash.
Seriously, though, giant leaps for these two awesome kids. With the release of the new MTV show Peak Season this fall, Animal Nation’s tracks hit a national audience. Tracks like Party Animals and Money have already played on the new hit series with several more AN tracks lined up in future episodes. Garnet’s was the voice that introduced the show in all the ads that led up to the show launch, which was pretty cool. He has a pretty sexy voice, honestly…But then, as Garnet showed me last week over msn, Mike also makes an appearance as himself on the show, sexy mofo that he is.
So this combined with the release of their totally awesome Party Animals video is propelling Animal Nation to super-fly status…
Hey all… raising a little cash for Camp Moomba and kids with HIV/Aids … click the link below for more info on the Camp and donate! Even a little goes a long way!
CARMEN AND CAMILLE LAUNCH INDABA MUSIC STUDIO ACCESS CAMPAIGN FOR PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED TRACK, SHINE 4U
Song Offered Under Creative Commons Attribution License Allowing Artists to Freely Share, Distribute and Transmit Their Remixes
New York, NY – June 23rd, 2009 – Indaba Music (www.indabamusic.com), the leading suite of online tools for musicians, announced today that recording artists Carmen and Camille have launched an exciting campaign, inviting the site’s more than 200,000 musicians to remix the group’s previously unreleased single, Shine 4U, under a Creative Commons Attribution license. This type of license allows re-mixers to distribute and transmit their version of Shine 4U under fair use. Launching today, the stems of the single will be available on Indaba Music [http://www.indabamusic.com/contests/show/carmenandcamille] and will be promoted on Creative Commons’ ccMixter, a community music site featuring remixes and samples licensed under Creative Commons.
“Our entire community is built around the idea of collaboration and sharing,” said Matt Siegel, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Indaba Music. “As supporters of Creative Commons licenses, we are very excited to work with forward-thinking artists like Carmen and Camille. Their willingness to incorporate a Creative Commons Attribution license into their remix contest enables our growing network of musicians to distribute and even profit from their work in the contest.”
Carmen and Camille are joining a growing list of esteemed artists, including Mariah Carey, Yo-Yo Ma, John Legend, and Canadian artists K-OS and Classified, who have already seized the opportunity to work with Indaba Music’s emergent community.
“We are so lucky these days that through modern technology we are able to easily work with other artists from around the world,” said Carmen, vocalist and flute player of the twin-sister duo. “The door is open for artists from different cultures and countries to work together on projects without ever meeting. This technology opens all sorts of doors, and for us personally, we are so excited to have the chance to work with these talented people.”
Carmen and Camille are utilizing the Indaba Music platform to release the stems and sounds of their brand new single, Shine 4U, which was finished just weeks prior to the start of this campaign. The remixing phase of the campaign runs from June 23rd to July 21st, 2009 and fan voting will run until August 4th, 2009. Winners will be announced on August 14th, 2009 on the Indaba Music website. Winners will be selected by Jon Ernst, Music Supervisor for popular MTV series The Hills and The City, Carmen and Camille themselves, and Mantis Evar, EVP of Artists and Community at Indaba Music.
“I think what makes us most excited about the outcome of this campaign is getting to hear our song redone in many different ways,” said Camille, vocalist and guitarist of the twin-sister duo. “We can’t wait to hear what people can add to the track. And the new versions of the song may bring us new fans that it would have taken us a long time to reach, which is great.”
“It’s inspiring to see smart new artists like Carmen and Camille use Creative Commons licenses to encourage sharing and reuse by the public, as well as to promote their work to as wide an audience as possible,” said Eric Steuer, Creative Director, Creative Commons. “By using our most permissive copyright license - the Creative Commons Attribution license - Carmen and Camille are making their work available in a very free way and will undoubtedly see some very exciting reuse examples as a result. Carmen and Camille understand that in order to succeed in today’s music industry, it’s important not to limit your thinking to the ways that things have been done in the past.”
About Carmen and Camille
Carmen and Camille have been a rising indie success story since the release of their debut album, Two. With major press recognition from Billboard, Stuff and Elle Girl, televised appearances on MTV’s TRL, The Maury Show, and Canada’s YTV, and winners of virtual MTV’s battle of the bands, the girls have been consistently breaking through the indie glass ceiling. Many of the songs from their debut album are featured on episodes of MTV’s The Hills and they recently filmed a television pilot on location in Los Angeles starring as themselves. The new single, Shine 4U, is set to be released on Indaba Tuesday June 23rd, 2009 and on Bandcamp and iTunes. For more: http://www.carmenandcamille.com
About Indaba Music
Indaba Music is a web application as well as a social network for musicians that enables artists all over the world to create music together online. Members can connect with an international community of more than 175,000 musicians to create online recording sessions - editing and mixing tracks recorded in different parts of the world using our online mixer. Following Indaba Music’s first year of strong growth, the site is becoming an integrated platform from which musicians can manage all aspects of their digital lives. For more: http://www.indabamusic.com
About Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a not-for-profit organization, founded in 2001, that promotes the creative re-use of intellectual and artistic works, whether owned or in the public domain. Through its free copyright licenses, Creative Commons offers authors, artists, scientists, and educators the choice of a flexible range of protections and freedoms that build upon the “all rights reserved” concept of traditional copyright to enable a voluntary “some rights reserved” approach. Creative Commons was built with and is sustained by the generous support of organizations including the Center for the Public Domain, Omidyar Network, The Rockefeller Foundation, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, as well as members of the public. For more information about Creative Commons, visit http://creativecommons.org.
Download Shine 4U free from Bandcamp until June 30th, 2009.
David has been on tour throughout the summer in Canada and the US and has already received not only free strawberries but great reviews! Here is a quote from the Calgary show…
Calgary, June 15th
“Standing with acoustic guitar in hand, David performed a 30 minute set, consisting of tracks from Things Left Unsaid, and his first release, Hard To Control. Instantly I was making comparisons to Jason Mraz, and John Mayer, with the boyish charm and charisma of Maroon 5 front man, Adam Levine. [...] I sat there just mesmerized, as his passion and enjoyment for playing music came through with every note, and word he sang, with a voice so smooth and pure with effortless range.” — Shannon Ambrose, The Portal Magazine Full interview
Also, make sure to check out his video blog on youtube, here is the latest:
June 16th, 2009 - Whistler, BC - Indie hip-hop group Animal Nation announced today they will be performing as part of the official Canada Day festivities in Ottawa. The duo joins a bill that features many great Canadian musical acts including headliner Sarah McLachlan.
“We are really excited to perform in Ottawa on Canada Day,” said Garnet Clare (aka Steige “Tall Man” Turner). “It’s great that Whistler artists are being recognized and getting noticed by the rest of the country.”
This event follows the recent release of their third album, Understanding More About Nothing Than Anybody Ever Thought Impossible or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Music, which was released digitally May 24th, 2009.
“Animal Nation’s 3rd release is so jammed full of steaming hot science that you will most literally be transmorphed into a scientition upon hearing it…” said Garnet Clare (aka Steige “Tall Man” Turner) “But not the boring “I wear safety glasses while studying rocks” kind of scientition…. You’ll become a fully fledged, babe-magnet, chemistry-in-your-face-’til-the-sun-comes-up, Bill Nye the freakin’ Science Guy type of scientition!”
The duo have been performing together since their formation in 2004. This marks the third full-length album the Whistler, BC based hip-hop duo have released, following their 2007 Time Zone (EP) and their first album Selfless Mind Indulgence.
The other half of the duo is Mike Armitage (aka Armadillo Slim) who, along with Steige serve up their rhymes with a dose of the absurd best described by their new single, “Party Animals” which tells the tale of the duo finding out what goes on after hours in a zoo. The only band to play the Telus Ski & Snowboard Festival the last three years in a row, of which all three performances were broadcast live on MTV.
In addition to their live performances on MTV, eight songs from Understanding More… have been licensed to the upcoming new MTV show “Peak Season” airing this fall and the show will also feature guest appearances from Steige and Mike.
After much fan-fare (of the same sort expected for visiting royals) Understanding More About Nothing Than Anybody Ever Thought Impossible or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Music) is now available. You don’t even have to pay for it, but if money is your thing, you can opt to donate a small (or large) amount to the Animal Nation kitty. The decision is yours. However if you want the killer album in real-life form you can buy Understanding More… and get to see the wicked album art (by artist Taka Sudo) and the cartoon book insert of Mike and Garnet as illustrated by Kent Osborne. If the combo of plump and squishy beats and funny is your thing… listen below. Feel free to share the widget and the love.
P.S. Garnet loves rearranging the alphabet… a lot.
Here are some of the photos from the music video shoot we did last weekend for David Blair, filmed on location at Mushroom Studios in Vancouver and The Vanilla Room in Langley. I worked again with Director Aaron Veale who really made the impossible happen for us considering I gave him a such a short time frame to get it done.
We also had an awesome crew and wicked extras so special thanks to Devin, Ben, Peter, Terry, Rob, Katie, Tara and the rest of the gang who worked long and hard for very little pay.
There are more photos to come, but here are a few…
nova
